Release Date: 04/05/17
Publisher: Head of Zeus
SYNOPSIS:
Vindici is a hero to many. He is also the nation's most dangerous criminal... A gripping serial killer thriller, perfect for fans of Angela Marsons.
The man who calls himself Vindici broke out of prison last year. Now he's filmed himself torturing and killing paedophiles in Liverpool's affluent suburbs. Half the city are celebrating: the streets are safer for their children. But for DCI Eve Clay and her team at the Merseyside Police, it's a nightmare. Their job is to solve the crimes and lock up the killer – hard enough without being despised by the public they are trying to protect.
And now, just when they think they've cracked the case, they receive a photo of Vindici, at a Day of The Dead parade in Mexico. So if Vindici is 5,000 miles away, who are they hunting in Liverpool? DCI Eve Clay must draw on all her cunning to unmask a killer who is somehow always one step ahead...
REVIEW:
There are crime books that take a simpler route to the tale where you have police chasing killers and then you have books that take a premise and turn it around in such a way that you're left questioning whether you want the police to catch up with the tales "villain."
Such is the way with this book by Mark Roberts where DCI Eve Clay alongside her team have to track down a killer who the public want to defend due to his targets. Its well written, the twists delightfully delivered and when added to solid description alongside characters that you can believe in as well as get a handle upon, all round make this a book that was a pure joy to read as each clue was revealed.
All round a cracking tale and one that has made sure that Mark's next outing will be top of my TBR pile. Cracking Crime Drama.
Release Date: 04/02/14
Publisher: Atlantic Books
SYNOPSIS:
When a nine-year-old boy is left to die inside a burning car on a sink estate in Peckham, DCI David Rosen is drafted in to investigate. The young boy has been severely burned, and is now fighting for his life. As Rosen and his team begin to scour the crime scene for forensic evidence, they discover something chilling; a graffiti image of a sinister eye, drawn in exquisite detail above the site of the wreckage - and behind it, a series of mysterious markings, etched into the wall. Could the markings represent a secret code left by the killer - a code that will hold the key to the investigation?
REVIEW:
OK, so for me, Mark’s first book The Sixth Soul was essentially a middle of the road book that whilst not outstanding, was solid enough to put Mark on my TBR list. The prose was good, the concept within believable and with cracking dialogue alongside proper crime solving generated a story that I felt was a lot better than the original.
Add to this some solid sleight of hand from the author backed up with an author who has clearly learned from what has gone before demonstrates that he’s a name to watch.
Release Date: 01/02/13
SYNOPSIS:
Six women. Six abductions. Six souls in peril...London is in the grip of a barbaric serial killer, dubbed Herod by the tabloid press. Four pregnant women have been abducted in quick succession, their bodies mutilated and dumped. When a fifth pregnant woman, Julia Caton, is taken from her home in the dead of night, DCI David Rosen knows that time is running out to save her...Then Rosen gets a mysterious phone call from Father Sebastian Flint, an enigmatic priest who seems to know rather too much about the abductions. When it emerges that Father Flint was once the Vatican's leading expert on the occult, the investigation takes an increasingly disturbing turn. But it isn't until Rosen discovers the existence of an ancient text - said to be the devil's answer to the bible - that the true horror of Herod's plan begins to unfold. Rosen is drawn inexorably to the killer's lair, where he will discover a terrible truth - that Herod's retribution is absolute, and that there are far worse things than death...
REVIEW:
I love a debut from a new author as it’s a giant leap into the unknown and perhaps no genre is better suited to that fearful leap than crime. What Mark Roberts presents to the reader is a story of murder, intrigue and of course the hunting of a sadistic killer named Herod by the tabloids.
Whilst not a novel that is a blockbuster it is a solid enough book among the many and when you take into consideration that it’s a debut you really have to make note of this as an author tends to get better with each successive release. All in if you want a reasonable paced Crime Thriller, with solid prose alongside some sleight of hand thrown in then you may well enjoy this book.
